The Taft Museum of Art has announced three exhibitions for its 2015-16 season:

Feb. 6-May 24, 2015: "Wild West to Gilded Age: American Treasures from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art." This exhibition, with works covering a century from 1830-1930, includes 52 paintings and eight sculptures by some of America's greatest artists, including Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, George Wesley Bellows, William Merritt Chase and John Singer Sargent. It is organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

June 12-Sept. 20, 2015: "Enduring Spirit: Edward Curtis and the North American Indians." With a camera, Edward Curtis captured with dignity the disappearing world of the American Indian. Curtis' photographs, taken from 1900 through 1930, include celebrated, iconic, and previously unknown images of indigenous American peoples. The exhibition will include platinum prints, gelatin silver prints, goldtones, photogravures and cyanotypes. It has been organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/Paris/Lausanne, in collaboration with the Taft.

Oct. 9, 2015-Jan. 17, 2016: "Jacob Lawrence's Paintings of the Hero of Haiti." Lawrence, a leading artist of the Harlem Renaissance, recounts the story of Toussaint L'Ouverture, founding father of Haiti, through 41 tempera paintings. The Taft exhibition, courtesy of the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, is a rare opportunity to see the series in its entirety.

"Jacob Lawrence's paintings often tell epic stories from African-American history," said curator Lynne Ambrosini. "Although the series illustrates the horrors of slavery and battle, it is also a testament to the endurance of the human spirit forged during the struggle for freedom."

The Taft plans two additional major exhibitions for 2016, to be announced later.

Currently on display through Sept. 14 is the highly regarded: "America's Eden: Thomas Cole and the Voyage of Life."

"Our special exhibitions connect to the Tafts, their home, their history, and their times often in obvious ways and frequently in more obscure ways, but always in a way that respects the qualities of the collectors and their collection," said director Deborah Emont Scott. "We hope that visitors to the Taft Museum of Art will be transported on this journey of discovery."

Jacob Lawrence, Toussaint L‘Ouverture series, no. 38, “Napoleon’s attempt to restore slavery in Haiti was unsuccessful. Desalines, Chief of the Blacks, defeated LeClercirca. Black men, women, and children took up arms to preserve their freedom,” 1938, gouache on paper. Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, LA, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1982(Photo: Provided)